Tuesday, September 04, 2007

rennie's rodeo roundup



Bob Rennie is moving on to Edmonton. I suppose, because the lack of land in Vancouver. Or maybe Vancouver is just saturated with inventory about to be available? Isn't Edmonton heading for the crapper?

Nifty website (aren't all of Rennie's sites nifty?). Whatever one thinks of Rennie, ya gotta hand it to him, he does what he does well. I read the other day that he is behind $2 billion in projects. That's a lot of donuts.

Speaking of Rennie, and Edmonton, and donuts, the site for Century Park exhorts one to visit with Taylor - who will fix you up with a donut and coffee - to help you "to understand the century park difference". "As you take your next sip of coffee" she'll mention a "recently approved LRT station right at your front door". How fabulous! That can't be literal - what if you live on the tenth floor? And do CONdo's have back doors? Back to Taylor - after being astounded by having that LRT at your front door (what about the pan-handlers?), you're likely to be famished, and you are offered another donut! By now, your eyes are wide from too much coffee and sugar (glazed, even - like donuts!), and the sight of the kitchens and bathroom will open them even wider, "more coffee?".

On to the fitness club - you don't really need cardio exercise, your heart is already racing with caffeine and sugar. But weight! Uh, wait! "c'mon have one more donut". That's better, now you are so bloated with coffee and donuts, the fitness centre is starting to sound good.

As you approach the building model, "you may notice a lot of red on the availability board because phase one is already sold out". Well, I'm glad to know that it's not from a coffee-induced explosion of an aneurysm.

It's interesting to see the marketing shift with the demographic. Taylor looks like a wholesome girl (in stilettos) who works evenings at Chaps and Spurs (or whatever) as a hostess. No hip yuppies on Vespas drinking Okanagan's finest rotted grapes, it's cowgirls coffee and donuts in Edmonton, and none of that fancy dee-zyn coffee like Vancouver.

Well, I was just doing a little digging on this new development, and came across a blinking forum dedicated to it. The superlatives are almost as bile-inducing as the coffee and donuts
This project will blow the doors off of the Edmonton market.

Can't wait for this bad boy.


I am watching this development with baited breath. I really like the potential to have a signature highrise community visible from our southern entrance. What a way to dispel this pimple on the prairie moniker...
I hope that the breath is not "baited" with prairie oysters and Old Tyme Pilsener. And with those towers sticking up, the "pimple on the prairie" will start looking more like a badly lanced boil. And, aren't the doors already off the hinges in the Edmonton market?

Bye bye Bobby. Don't look back.

Thanks to bearclaw for the link.

6 comments:

BearClaw said...

solipsist,

Different kind of marketing but west-coast prices. I think Rennie understands that we need a lot of "features" to justify 600K condos in Edmonton. Unlike Vancouver all you need is a deck on your 500sqft shoebox so you can breathe in the awesomeness. Ive trolled Vancouver blogs in horror at what grim meathook future was possible. I almost feel like we were let off easy as it appears the madness is ending?

Edmonton market stats

Unknown said...

I apologize for the OT post, but this is worth watching:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=10WoQZKZkNs

Unknown said...

That has to be the most disturbing picture I've seen this week -- and I used to live in Calgary!

Anonymous said...

Solipsist -

don't have your email, and don't know how to send this info any other way, anyway, I got some hits on my site, and when I clicked on the source it went to a site called urban vancouver which appears to be aggregating all your posts and content from (un)real estate.

In case you didn't know, here is the link, I would edit this and get rid of it so they don't benefit from any return traffic off your busy blog.

Peace

solipsist said...

bearclaw - I don't get any of it. I'm sure that it is just too much to keep going. The euphoria is still there, but when it ends, it will get nasty.

I find myself hoping for a slow crawl backwards instead of an outright crash, as the latter is going to have big repercussions.

lenny - no need for apologies here, unless yer sellin' sumptin'.

wu'kong - I have to say that I was more than a bit disturbed while photoshoppin' it! But Bobby's hat looks so sweet on him, don't you think?

The fella serenading is "the naked cowboy" from NYC, and I didn't bother with the background - which shows the Coast Mountains. Maybe Rennie and Co. can convince the Edmontonians that they are in Vancouver! That would justify the prices...

greg - thanks for the heads up.

Pretty cheap of them to just feed from hundreds of sites. I guess that they lack originality, though they are the originals to do so - to my knowledge.

I shut off the site feed - with the exception of the first 255 characters - which will hopefully only give them a picture. If not, I will shut down the feeds altogether.

I don't know quite what to make of it. I pull images, excerpts, etc. all the time under the fair use ideal, but link back to quotes, and original art. I found no link to this site on their page.

I'm not sure whether to care, or not.

OK - just checked, and now they just have the headlines, but nothing else. Clicking on the headlines brings one here. I don't care now.

I write because I like to, and don't seek profits. I don't know whether they have advertising or not (I block it all), but I wouldn't want them to make money from what I do for free, that would be an infringement.

Anonymous said...

solipsist -

main thing is for fans to know when you add a new post - if they are aggregating your feed to their desktop they will still know that based on the headlines.

Whoever the webmaster is at Urban Vancouver is building their site using drupal - I know because they didn't bother to change the default drupal favicon, whether through laziness or lack of knowledge on how to do so.

Anyway, I enjoy your blog, keep up the good work.